Denver Mayor Mike Johnston disagreed with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who insisted that sanctuary cities do not cooperate with federal law enforcement authorities.
During a Wednesday House Oversight Committee hearing, Jordan peppered Johnston with questions after "suspected TdA gang member" Abraham Gonzalez was released following a one-hour notice to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
"This is the first time I've been made aware of there's been an incident like this," Johnston explained. "I reached out to ICE after I saw the video. I've coordinated with their team and offered to sit down and see if there are procedures we can change."
"It's a simple question!" Jordan shouted. "You can release him in the parking lot, give ICE one hour notice, and they got to send six officers to arrest this guy! Or you can say, hey, what? We're going to, here's what we're going to do. We're going to hold him!"
"You come in and bring two officers in, and you turn him over there! Why not do it that way?"
"We have a city ordinance," the mayor replied before Jordan interrupted.
"Because you're a sanctuary city!" the lawmaker exclaimed. "This is the whole point."
"No, sir," Johnston insisted. "I disagree with you. I'll tell you why. If you talk about sanctuary as a definition of shielding people from law enforcement, we do not do that."
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"What we do do is provide services," he added. "In this context, what we did is we coordinated the release."
"The officer got assaulted because of your policy, which says we're going to release him to, in your words, not mine, to the streets!" Jordan shouted in response.
Watch the video below from House Oversight or click the link.
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